WATCH: Wink Martindale discusses Michigan football defense's response after USC loss, more

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football defensive coordinator Wink Martindale met with the media Wednesday afternoon leading into his team’s game against Maryland Saturday. Watch video from his press conference in the player at the top of the screen.

Key quotes from Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale

• On how much of a wake up call the USC loss was for everyone involved with Michigan: “I mean, we keep bringing that up, but it was a bad game. I think that you’re going to have a bad game. Better early than late. We had too many missed tackles, and I think that it’s one of those things you find out the true character of who you’re coaching and who you’re coaching with. I love the staff that we have here, and the trust that we have in each other. You just have to go back to work, and that’s what makes this game so great — seeing those type of challenges after those type of games.”

• On the character of the Michigan players after the USC game, with Tré Williams saying other teams may have folded after that loss but this one didn’t: “I think that how you handle it as a coaching staff feeds down to the players. There was no panic. Like I put on our sheet I go over with the kids, the positive stuff, I said, ‘Never have, never will — we didn’t flinch.’ Never have and never will. We just fix it and go play the next play. It doesn’t matter how we have to go out there or why we have to go out there. We just go out there and do the best we can do and play as hard as we can play. Sometimes, they make plays, and sometimes we make plays. That’s why they tune in.”

• On senior EDGE Derrick Moore: “Especially this time of year, for you to win, your best players have to play the best, and I think he is. I know the way with fantasy football and everything else how it is, is everybody just bases it off of sacks. It’s his physicality that he brings every day to practice and to the games. With both he and [senior EDGE] Jaishawn [Barham], our defense feeds off of their physicality. It’s not easy to set the edges in the run game and convert to pass and all of those other things, especially in tight games, where the offenses have their entire play book open. But he has been a leader for us. You’re not going to see him call a meeting on the middle of the field and give some passionate Ray Lewis speech, but you can see how he plays, and that’s passionate enough for me, and the other players feed off of it.”